'It can lead to chaos' How disinformation has hampered flood rescue work in Spain

Home to more than 120 shops, a cinema and 34 restaurants, the Bonaire shopping centre has long been known as one of the largest in the Valencia region. After flood waters coursed through the municipality of Aldaia last week, it began making headlines for another reason: disinformation over the fate of its vast underground car park.

- Ashifa Kassam

Online personalities, including one with more than 10 million followers, along with a prominent TV host and a far-right activist, seized on the fact that rescuers had been unable to enter the car park, falsely claiming that it contained hundreds of bodies.

This week, as the water receded, they were roundly discredited by Spanish police and the army, who said the car park had been searched and no bodies had been found. It was just a glimpse of the speculation, false claims and hoaxes that have surged after the storm, straining a country already wrestling with the deaths of more than 200 people. "The disinformation started on Tuesday night," said Ximena Villagran of Maldita.es, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to factchecking. "And from that moment onwards, there was a significant explosion."

More than a week after the floods, her organisation has confirmed more than 60 related hoaxes, echoing the kind of spread often seen in elections or in Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.